Five Reasons To Use Online Backup Services, Data Storage And Data Disaster Recovery Services

www.ishelter.net

The backup of company information is critical no matter the size of your organization. Studies show that 90% of businesses with a significant data loss go out of business within two years. The 10% that remain in business due so because they have a good disaster recovery solution in place.

Increasingly businesses are turning to online backup services to fulfill their disaster recovery needs. In most cases the online backup service provides them a cost effective fit for their requirements, especially when they do not have the large volume of data, multiple interconnected corporate sites, or the technical staff that the fortune 100 companies have.

The latest data protection services integrate online technologies, secure disk-based backup, and fast recovery of critical files. In addition, they reduce or remove the burden of physically storing backup tapes offsite.

The following is a list of reasons why any business should consider turning to an online backup service provider.

1. RELIABILITY, ASSURES UP-TO-DATE RECOVERY OF CRITICAL BUSINESS DATA

If a critical event such as lightning strikes your building in the middle of a work day, you may need to restore that days data. In the event a catastrophic event (Fire/Flood) strikes your business you will need to restore almost all of your company data. If you rely on a nightly backup process and tape rotation system, the complete restoration of your data will be impossible. A recent study conducted by Storage Magazine revealed that only 37% of businesses actually test their internal backups regularly, of those that do, 77% found they were unable to fully recover their data. The data they did recovery was sometimes days or weeks old.

Online backup and recovery services solve this problem by automatically transmitting files across a secure internet connection. In most cases the standard online service will allow backups to be run several times a day reducing your overall risk. However, the best services provide an always on duplication of files, so that in the event of a data failure, your business will loose only a few seconds worth of data.

2. GREATER CONTROL OF RESTORING DATA

If you experience a site disaster and need to get your data up and running at a different location, standard backup and recovery methods can require more time and effort than is feasible for businesses with limited technical staff. No business, large or small, can afford to be without its critical data for hours, let alone days.

One of the great benefits of online backup and recovery solutions is the wide range of control it offers users. You choose which functions happen automatically while retaining the ability to manage and monitor the entire backup and recovery process anywhere and anytime.

When you need to recover from a site disaster or restore files; the online disaster recovery service typically will provide some type of external login to your information. All authorized users are able to search the data and initiate restores of missing files. In most cases the restore of the data does not need to be sent to the original site for recovery. In addition, unlike traditional backup systems, finding your data and restoring it is mush faster because you do not have to physically locate and load tape cartridges into tape drives for restoration.

3. 100% SECURITY FOR ALL DATA

Your corporate server manages large amounts of sensitive data —intellectual property, customer records, employee records, and more. These are vital information assets you never want to expose to third parties. A survey conducted by the Enterprise Strategy Group indicates that less than 8 percent of companies encrypt their data. Yet, by not securing their data through encryption, businesses unintentionally leave their data vulnerable to external forces such as competitors, hackers, thieves and human error.

With an online backup and disaster recovery service all of your data is stored in an offsite facility in an encrypted format. The best online backup services encrypt your data prior to it being sent over the Internet or secure connection. In addition, only authorized users that have the correct decryption keys can access the data. In almost all cases the online backup service does not have these keys, and can not restore or even decrypt your data without you providing them the actual decryption key information.

4. COMPLIANCE

A number of industries have adopted compliance guidelines over the last few years. Businesses in the healthcare sector are required to be HIPPA compliant, which mandates patient information to be confidential. However, if patient information is stored on a backup tape and the tape is stolen or lost, the information could be compromised, because most traditional backup solutions do not provide tape level encryption. Likewise certain financial records must be retained for may years, but if you can't recover those records, you can be personally liable.

The best online disaster recovery and backup services provide instant compliance, because all information is encrypted before it is sent and while it is stored at the offsite facility. In addition it reduces your risk of having information stolen or tampered with, because it is only accessible by authorized individuals. Finally, most services will provide a complete archiving solution that will allow you to archieve all required files for a specified period of time, such as 3 or 7 years.

5. LOWER OVERHEAD EXPENSES

One of the main reasons to look at a online disaster recovery and backup service is because it lowers your overhead costs. In a traditional backup solution; organizations are required to spend operating dollars on expensive backup software and add-ons such as Microsoft Exchange & SQL service support. Some companies may have several tape drive libraries which have a high cost, and are prone to failure. Finally, the man power required to ensure that the various hardware and software systems are functioning, and that backups are being run on time and completed can require in some organizations a full time or several full time employees.

The online disaster recovery and backup service reduces the overall costs because it eliminates the need for expensive, but unreliable hardware systems, reduces the ongoing cost of adding physical tape media, eliminates offsite media storage fee's, and reduces backup windows by as much as 75% and increases restore times by as much as 90%. Finally, a good online disaster recovery and backup service will require almost no interaction by your IT staff, which will allow you to eliminate head count or re-task team members with additional duties.

If you´re looking for an online backup service, follow the link at the top of this page or below.

For more information go to www.ishelter.net